In conventional manner, such a terminal comprises a camera fitted with a lens system, a monitor screen, manual and/or automatic control means, and an electronic assembly for the purposes of control, coding/decoding, and transmission line interfacing.
The above-mentioned equipment is housed in a case or box generally intended to rest on a table at which the speaker is sitting, and it is associated with a telephone set.
In order to obtain a satisfactory image of a speaker, it is necessary for the picture to be taken from a considerable height above the table, typically 20 cm to 30 cm.
For this reason, the front face of a conventional video-phone case is relatively tall and has the lens system located near its top. In order to ensure that the eyes of the speaker look in a direction which is close enough to the lens system, the monitor screen also needs to be located in the top portion of said front face.
As a result, such a terminal is normally relatively heavy and occupies too much table space.
Another drawback of a conventional terminal lies in the fact that the case of the terminal and its camera lens system are fixed. As a result, the lens system is centered in an average direction which is deemed suitable for people having a wide range of heights. This means that very short people or very tall people may be poorly centered in the camera field of vision, and, indeed, portions of their faces may be off-screen.
Prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,387 describes a video-phone type terminal including a case comprising two parts which are hinged to each other. The case may take up a closed position for transport purposes and an open position in which its two parts are at an angle of about 90.degree. to each other. Provision is also made, when it is desired to change the camera aiming direction, to mount the camera on the opening part of the case so that its orientation relative to said part can be varied.